US Suicide Deaths Reached Record High in 2022, Nearly 50,000 Died Last Year – News18

The number of suicides in the United States hit a record high last year, US media reports said citing new provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 2022, an estimated 49,449 people died by suicide, which is 3% higher than the 48,183 people who died in 2021, according to a CDC report.

The data states that men in the US were about four times more likely than women to die by suicide, and rates were highest among senior men, CNN reported. However, the suicide rate increased twice as much for women in 2022, with especially significant increases among White women and those ages 25 to 34.

Notably, over half of suicides involve firearms. “Gun suicides continue to take the lives of elderly white men at high rates and increasingly, the lives of Black teens,” said Ari Davis, policy advisor for the center, in the analysis. “If we can put time and space between this lethal method and someone in crisis, it can save lives,” he told the American broadcaster.

This grim data comes as suicide rates have been rising in the country for the past few decades. Earlier in 2021, the US surgeon general called for the implementation of a national prevention strategy and issued an advisory focused on protecting youth mental health amid a spike in suicide rates and “alarming increases” in mental health challenges among young people.

In August, US Health Secretary Xavier Becerra said that nine in 10 Americans believe America is facing a mental health crisis. “The new suicide death data reported by CDC illustrates why,” Becerra said in a statement. Becerra added that many people still believe that asking for help is a sign of weakness. The top US disease prevention agency has not yet calculated a suicide rate for the year, but available data suggests a surge in suicides not seen since the dawn of World War II.